Dominican Republic Service Team '18

Through mobile medical clinics, building hurricane proof houses, and improving schools, Watkinson School's Dominican Republic Service Team aims to improve the quality of life for the displaced Haitians who live in the sugar cane work camps of the Dominican Republic

Overview
La Fuerza Azul, or as it translates to English, ‘The Blue Force’ is a group of more than 70 people — students from Watkinson and Hartford's University High School of Science and Engineering, teachers, parents, and medical professionals from UConn Health — from many different backgrounds who amass with a mission to offer support to displaced Haitians who live in the La Romana region of the Dominican Republic. Some of the Haitians are there because of the January 2010 earthquake, but most were bussed there by large companies to cut sugar cane. They live in sugar cane work camps, called bateys, and need basic life resources: shelter, clean water, food and medical care.

Annually since 2010, during the week of Thanksgiving, our team ventures to La Romana to help improve the lives of families living in the bateys. Whilst in the Dominican Republic, the group partners with El Fundación El Buen Samaritano Hospital. Through this partnership, and funding from many gracious donors, we are able to build hurricane proof houses for numerous bateys, including batey Papita and batey Fifty, build infrastructure for the local Joe Hartman primary school, provide a traveling medical clinic that sees over 800 patients, and distribute food to residents of the bateys.

The total cost for all of our work in the Dominican Republic is greater than $22,000 each year. Every penny donated goes directly into funding these projects and you can choose which project you would like to support. As a courtesy of your gracious donation, we will send you a photograph of the work you sponsored. Please remember that any donation helps our mission, but if you cannot make a monetary donation, please share this page with your friends and family through social media.

Building Hurricane Proof Houses for Batey Papita and Batey 50 is the main project of our service trip. Both Bateys are privately owned and therefore the government does not provide hurricane-proof housing. Our service team has built many hurricane-proof houses for elderly people and families on both Bateys. Prior to teams like ours building homes for them, residents lived in homes they cobbled together from found sticks, cardboard, tar paper, corrugated tin, and weathered, discarded pieces of plywood. 

Also our mobile medical clinics provide families an opportunity to be seen by a medical doctor and patients receive treatment for a number of ailments from basic colds to high blood pressure and diabetes. Each patient that is seen is given a three month supply of vitamins and medications. In addition, they receive a pair of shoes and a food kit. Each year the team encounters individuals with sever injuries who are unable  to get to the hospital because many bateys are in very rural areas away from the city. With our mobile med clinic, we are able to bring them to the hospital and pay for their medical care.